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As of late in Illinois, a newborn child was raced to a crisis room by his folks for unending crying and retching that kept him from nursing. The crisis room doctor determined the baby to have a gastrointestinal colic and sent the family home with guidelines on the best way to adapt to the colic. The following day, the baby endured an agonizing passing, because of an uncommon heart deformity that the specialist could have found by requesting a standard mid-section x-beam. At the point when the newborn child’s folks enlisted Chicago therapeutic negligence legal advisors and sued both the doctor’s facility and the crisis room doctor, a jury discovered both litigants obligated for $2,250,000.

Multi-million dollar therapeutic negligence verdicts make one wonder of how juries touch base at such numbers. What is the simply measure of discipline for a specialist’s blunder that can sufficiently remunerate the loss of lamenting guardians? Clearly no measure of cash would ever repay guardians or make them entire after the passing of a tyke. Regardless of the possibility that such a number could be come to, is it truly reasonable to make specialists subject?

The Illinois legitimate framework has rules for striking the most fitting harmony between securing both patients and specialists through (1) limitations on documenting cases, (2) tops on specific sorts of harms, and (3) relative carelessness testing.

Documenting an Illinois Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

An Illinois therapeutic negligence claim, in many occasions, should be recorded inside a 2 year statute of constraints period from the date that misbehavior could have been sensibly found, however close to 4 years from the date of treatment. This implies a few patients are given a marginally augmented timeframe after restorative treatment until they sensibly find therapeutic misbehavior.

Case in point, when a lady experiences surgery to avert future pregnancies and winds up pregnant three years after the fact, regardless she has one year to document a claim, since she couldn’t have sensibly found the negligence until she got to be pregnant three years after surgery. Notwithstanding the expansion given for the disclosure of negligence, all cases are liable to a four year restriction. Accordingly, if the lady got to be pregnant 5 years after the fact, she would never again have the capacity to document a therapeutic negligence claim.

The Illinois therapeutic misbehavior statute of impediments exists to secure specialists against stale cases. Over the long haul, it turns out to be progressively hard to detail a resistance against acts conferred before. Besides, the statute of confinements exists so specialists are not compelled to stress over their oversights for a boundless measure of time. The statute of restrictions can be longer in arguments including minors or shorter against government elements.

When it is built up that a case fulfills the statute of impediments, a claim must be recorded if a patient’s restorative misbehavior legal counselor finds a specialist why should willing affirm around a rupture of standard consideration.

In each therapeutic negligence claim, the larger inquiry is whether a specialist ruptured the standard of consideration in his or her field of practice. Standard consideration prerequisites are distinctive for every region of pharmaceutical so restorative negligence master witnesses must be specialists who hone in the range of drug required in a specific claim. So as to demonstrate that there has been a break of the standard consideration in a restorative field, there must be a specialist witness why should willing affirm for the offended party and say that the specialist being referred to neglected to meet the standard of consideration necessities in the business. Without master affirmation, restorative misbehavior cases can’t be documented.

Illinois Medical Malpractice Damages

There are three sorts of harms that are by and large accessible in Illinois law: monetary harms, non-financial harms and correctional harms. As the name recommends, corrective harms are utilized as a type of discipline, and are not accessible in therapeutic negligence. The thinking behind no reformatory harms is that restorative misbehavior is a type of carelessness, which is a non-deliberate tort that society for the most part does not rebuff.

Monetary harms incorporate the greater part of the doctor’s visit expenses and costs that emerge from negligence, which can extend from doctor’s facility bills, remedies and transportation costs included. There are no tops, or impediments to the measure of medicinal negligence financial harms that juries can honor. Anything that a patient is charged for as a consequence of negligence is a monetary harm that specialists and healing centers are subject for.

Non-monetary harms include installment for the greater part of the elusive costs that licenses persevere through, for example, torment and enduring or even loss of connections. As of August of 2005, non-financial harms are constrained to $500,000.00 against individual specialists and $1,000,000.00 against healing centers. In this manner, an Illinois jury’s choice for the aggregate sum of harms owed to a patient is constrained to the restorative expenses connected with the negligence, in addition to a most extreme of $1.5 million for non-financial harms.

Relative Negligence in Illinois Medical Malpractice

Once a conclusion is gone after the measure of harms that were acquired by a patient, juries are requested that deduct from those harms a rate of the patient’s own near deficiency. Harms can be deducted similarly as half, however once a patient’s deficiency is perceived as more than half, harms for the offended party are evacuated.

The 50/50 near carelessness test in Illinois just permits therapeutic misbehavior recuperation against specialists when patients are half or less at flaw. For instance, if a patient is discharged from a doctor’s facility, and trained by a specialist not to drive for one week while on anti-microbials, however overlooks the directions, crashes an auto and is seriously harmed, a jury would most likely find that in spite of the fact that the anti-toxin may have brought on the mishap, the patient was more than half at deficiency for disregarding the specialist’s guidelines, and in this manner banished from recuperation against the specialist who requested the solution.

Then again, in nearer cases, juries can confirm that patients are under half at flaw. In a late case, a patient was hurried to a healing facility for serious hypersensitivities that were irritated by his smoking propensities. The patient kicked the bucket when specialists managed a nourishment supplement through his encouraging tube that contained milk, which he was likewise susceptible to. The jury found that the patient was 38% at issue, since it was his smoking that added to the patient’s debilitated condition that prompted his demise. Since the patient was under half at deficiency, specialists were in charge of paying the patient’s home as per their offer of the accuse, which was 62%.

The computation of harms, and similar carelessness alongside confinements, for example, the statute of impediments and necessities of master affirmation with respect to standard consideration helps juries touch base at reasonable verdicts in to a great degree troublesome cases. The drawback to the amazingly included procedure is that it results in long claims that can keep going for a considerable length of time and include costly lawful charges. In any case, the Illinois legitimate framework endeavors to strike a suitable harmony between securing both patients and specialists.

Medical malpractice cases can be big news, but these cases run the gamut from minor injuries to permanent injuries to death. What is medical malpractice? It’s a mistake, often called medical negligence, made by a doctor, nurse, or other medical professional that results in a patient’s injury. Doctors and medical facilities maintain malpractice insurance policies to pay for these mistakes, and patients can file lawsuits against the doctor and medical facility or hospital to receive money for the injuries.

The most obvious type of medical malpractice is a mistake made during surgery. This famously happened to comedian and former Saturday Night Live star, Dana Carvey. He had a blocked artery to his heart, but the surgeon ended up operating on the wrong artery. This meant that Carvey had to undergo a second surgery. In this high profile medical malpractice case, Carvey was awarded $7.5 million.

Other surgical mistakes could lead to infection, paralysis, accidentally cutting a vital organ, or leaving a foreign object inside the patient’s body. Surgical mistakes are only one type of medical malpractice, however. These cases can involve any number of mistakes, such as:

Misdiagnosis – A doctor may inaccurately determine that a patient has one condition or disease when it is later discovered that the patient had a different condition or disease. If the real disease goes untreated, it can lead to injury or death. A misdiagnosis may also lead the doctor to prescribe the wrong medications or unnecessary surgery, which can cause injury to the patient.

Delayed diagnosis – In this case, the physician fails to determine that the patient has a serious illness such as cancer or heart disease. Obviously, if the person isn’t treated because the doctor failed to recognize the illness, it could lead to injury or death. A delay can also occur if someone is forced to wait in an emergency room for too long, for example.

Anesthesia Mistakes – Anesthesiologists are responsible for the medication that causes a patient to sleep during a medical procedure. Since people can be sensitive to these medications, it’s the responsibility of the anesthesiologist to review a patient’s medical history to try to ensure that the anesthesia medication won’t cause problems. If it does, the anesthesiologist and medical facility may be sued for the patient’s injuries.

Prescriptions – Before prescribing medications, a doctor needs to know all other medications that a patient may be taking because it can be dangerous to mix them. It can also be dangerous to take some medications if the patient has a specific disease. For example, a particular heart medication may be dangerous for someone with Parkinson’s Disease.

Childbirth – If medical personnel make mistakes during childbirth, the result can be death or permanent disabilities, such as brain damage in the baby.

Of course, these are just a few of the more common forms of medical malpractice. Dental malpractice and all sorts of other possibilities exist in the medical field.

What to Do If You Have Been Injured by Medical Malpractice

If you believe that you or a loved one has been injured by medical malpractice, the first thing you need to do is consult a lawyer. These kinds of cases can be very complicated, so it’s absolutely necessary to have an experienced attorney working on your behalf.

Why are these cases so complicated? It can often be difficult to prove that the medical professionals acted negligently. All medical records have to be carefully examined to determine if malpractice really did take place. Did the doctor not perform his or her duties up to the standards expected of the profession? This can be likened to a driver who runs a red light or doesn’t stop for a stop light.

It is also important to note that each state has what is called a “statute of limitations” on medical malpractice claims. So, you need to act quickly if you believe malpractice has taken place because after a period of time, you will no longer be allowed to file a lawsuit.

Most lawyers who work on medical malpractice cases don’t require you to pay them a fee up front. They work on what is called a “contingency” basis, which means that they take a percentage of the total settlement you receive when the case is finished. The lawyer takes a certain risk here, so it’s to the lawyer’s advantage to only take cases that are likely to lead to a settlement that will be higher than the costs of the lawsuit. This means, first and foremost, that there must be what is called “causation.”

Causation means that it must be provable that the injury occurred as a direct result of the medical professional’s negligence. Most of the lawyers who handle medical malpractice cases have medical investigators to help them develop the evidence to prove that you or your loved one was indeed a victim of malpractice.

It’s also to the lawyer’s advantage to try to get you as much money as possible and to try to keep your case from going to court. This means that the lawyer will negotiate on your behalf with the lawyer for the malpractice insurance company, working to obtain a settlement for you. Experienced medical malpractice attorneys know what settlement amounts are reasonable to expect for different kinds of cases.

How long do medical malpractice lawsuits take to settle? This varies greatly and depends on a number of factors. The more complex the issues involved, of course, the longer it will probably take before a settlement will be reached.

The most important reason for filing a medical malpractice lawsuit is to receive the money you need for medical care related to the injury. If the injury is permanent, such as in the case of cerebral palsy or paralysis, the costs can be enormous and will last a lifetime. The injured person or the caretaker of the injured person may not be able to work for a period of time, so there may also be a loss of income – before the settlement and perhaps also in the future.

From our first days we are taught to trust those in the medical profession, and well we should! They have our best interests at heart. Medical doctors are important members of our communities who should be held in high regard and treated with respect and appreciation. Their medical knowledge and skill combined with their nurturing concern and humanitarian ideals are incredible benefits to all of us. Their commitment to health and wellness has given all of us a higher quality of life.

In the end, the fact remains that those in the medical profession are still mere mortals, and like all of us, they can make errors. They don’t do this on purpose, and their intention is Surely not to do us harm. But they are human beings who make mistakes, and the majority of the time those mistakes are the result of two factors which they have control over. If you have been harmed due to Malpractice remember it is important to have a Medical Malpractice Attorney on your side.

Why Malpractice Happens

The two leading factors contributing to medical malpractice are:

Having more patients than they can handle. In their quest to treat us, doctors sometimes attended to more patients than they can safely care for. Evidence of this is the time many of us spend in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, or a suspicion that we are wasting the doctors valuable time in the exam room when we have concerns or seek more information. At hurried times like these doctors are no different than the rest of us and tend to overlook details and make mistakes even though they surely do not intend to.

Waiting too long to refer a patient to another doctor. Some doctors tend to wait too long before sending patients to other doctors who specializes in a particular type of medical treatment that the patient can benefit from. In some cases this delay can cause far more problems than it solves. Diseases progress and problems grow worse and occasionally spread to other parts of the body.

When these two factors are present to any degree, the greater the possibility of malpractice occurring. Medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional, due to action or non action, performs below industry standards of patient care and, as a result, the patient suffers harm.

What to do in the Event of Malpractice

If you believe this has happened to you, you need to stand up for your rights, address the i event and hold the medical professional responsible so the practice does not continue and harm is done to others. Your first step is to contact a medical malpractice attorney and share your story with them. Medical malpractice lawyers, with their keen understanding of medical procedures and standards, along with knowledge of your rights under the law as a patient can quickly determine whether you have a case that should be pursued. If it is, the medical malpractice lawyer will begin evaluating the facts and start planning a course of legal action.

A Medical Malpractice Attorney Will Help Determine If You Have a Case

Most medical malpractice lawyers do not charge for the first appointment which permits you to share your suspicions. They will also be straight to the point in telling you whether or not, in their professional opinion, you actually have a case worth pursuing. You would also be well advised to do an in initial consultation with several different medical malpractice lawyers. If the majority respond in a corresponding fashion you will have an excellent idea of how to proceed and you will also have a sense of who you feel most confident in working with.

Medical and health care providers – primarily hospitals, surgeons, doctors, pharmacists, physicians, nurses and emergency medical technicians (“EMTs”) — are expected to offer us care and support during our most critical moments. The vast majority of medical and health care providers do offer excellent care that will help us to recover from a personal injury or medical condition. However, some providers fail to meet the requisite standard of care, and, under such circumstances, may be guilty of medical malpractice.

COMMON TYPES OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

Medical malpractice, commonly called “medmal” for short, generally occurs when a negligent, careless or reckless act, mistake, error, or omission by a doctor or other medical professional causes damage or harm to a patient. It has been estimated that almost 98,000 people die in hospitals in the United States each year, and that medication errors injure approximately 1.3 million people per year. Medical malpractice errors or negligence typically occur in the diagnosis or treatment of a patient, and may include, but are not limited to:

A patient’s right to recover compensation for medical malpractice is generally governed by common law as well as statutes and regulations which have been promulgated to protect patients who have been subjected to medical malpractice or medical negligence. Medical malpractice suits are usually complex, time-consuming, expensive to litigate, dependent upon expert testimony, and vigorously defended by health care providers and their insurers.

ELEMENTS OF A MEDICAL MALPRACTICE OR MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE CLAIM

The medical malpractice personal injury victim is commonly referenced as a “plaintiff” and the person or entity that caused the harm is commonly referenced as a “defendant.” The South Carolina Supreme Court has set forth the elements of negligence with regard to a medical malpractice personal injury claim that a plaintiff has to prove as follows:

>A physician-patient relationship exists
>The generally recognized and accepted practices and procedures that would be followed by average, competent practitioners in the defendants’ field of medicine under the same or similar circumstances >That the defendant departed from the recognized and generally accepted standards
>The defendant’s departure from such generally recognized practices and procedures was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s alleged injuries and damages

Thus, the medical malpractice lawyer and his client must present evidence to meet each of the foregoing elements at trial.

A physician commits malpractice by not exercising that degree of skill and learning that is ordinarily possessed and exercised by members of the profession in good standing acting in the same or similar circumstances. Durham v. Vinson, 360 S.C. 639 (2004). A plaintiff and his attorney must proffer expert testimony to prove both the required standard of care and the defendant’s failure to conform to that standard, unless the subject matter lies within the ambit of common knowledge so that no special learning is required to evaluate the conduct of the defendants.

INFORMED CONSENT CLAIM

A physician’s failure to obtain a patient’s “informed consent” with regard to a procedure or treatment is a form of medical malpractice. The term “informed consent” means that a physician must tell a patient all of the potential benefits, risks, and alternatives involved in any surgical procedure, diagnostic procedure, medical procedure, therapeutic procedure, or other course of treatment, and must obtain the patient’s written consent to proceed. Under Informed consent law, a physician who performs a diagnostic, therapeutic, or surgical procedure has a duty to disclose to a patient of sound mind, in the absence of an emergency that warrants immediate medical treatment, (1) the diagnosis, (2) the general nature of the contemplated procedure, (3) the material risks involved in the procedure, (4) the probability of success associated with the procedure, (5) the prognosis if the procedure is not out, and (6) the existence of any alternatives to the procedure. Thus, the plaintiff and his lawyer must present evidence of the physician’s breach of the foregoing elements of an informed consent claim in order to prevail at trial.

BREACH OF CONTRACT OR WARRANTY CLAIM

While most health care providers will not guarantee or warrant a particular outcome, there are times when they do, and a failure to successfully provide the outcome may give rise to a breach of contract or breach of warranty claim. These type cases usually involve plastic surgery wherein the patient is told that his or her post-surgery physical appearance will be the same as demonstrated on a computerized enhancement of the patient’s photograph. Thus, much like a business breach of contract claim, the plaintiff and his lawyer must present evidence of the physician’s breach of the stated warranty or guarantee by the preponderance of evidence in order to prevail at trial.

COMPENSATION IN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CASES

In a medical malpractice personal injury lawsuit, a victim seeks compensation for the injury or injuries he or she has suffered. Compensation can include past and future medical expenses, disability or deformity, loss of income, emotional and mental anguish, loss of a spouse’s comfort and society, past and future pain and suffering, and an amount which would be necessary to make the person whole as respects a permanent personal injury. McNeil v. United States, 519 F.Supp. 283 (D.S.C. 1981). In cases where the defendant acted recklessly, maliciously or willfully, punitive damages may also be awarded. Punitive damages in medical malpractice lawsuits are intended to punish the responsible party and deter others from committing the same acts. Gamble v. Stevenson, 305 S.C. 104, 406 S.E.2d 350 (1991). If a wrongful death results from the medical malpractice, the decedent’s beneficiaries are entitled to compensation.

CAPS ON MEDICAL MALPRACTICE DAMAGES

For medical malpractice cases arising on or after July 1, 2005, which placed caps on non-economic damages a patient could recover from a liable defendant health care provider. S.C. Code § 15-32-220(a) limits the civil liability for non-economic damages of the health care provider to an amount not to exceed $350,000 for each claimant regardless of the number of separate causes of action on which the claim is based. S.C. Code § 15-32-220(a) provides an exception to the foregoing cap where the health care provider is proven to be grossly negligent, willful, wanton or reckless and that conduct was the proximate cause of the claimant’s non-economic damages. S.C. Code 15-32-220(b) provides that the $350,000 cap is limited to each claimant. S.C. Code 15-32-220(c) allows a claimant to stack his claim, and provides that up to three health care providers may be subject to the $350,000 cap per claimant, for a total of $1,050,000 per claimant.

The non-economic damage cap of $350,000 per medical entity or practice or person does not apply to economic damages and does not apply to punitive damages. Effective for medical malpractice cases arising on or after July 1, 2005, S.C. Code 15-32-230 further limits liability with regard to emergency obstetrical or emergency department situations. This section eliminates liability on behalf of any person providing emergency care or emergency obstetrical care to a person in immediate threat of death or an immediate threat of serious bodily injury while in an emergency room, obstetrical or surgical suite, unless the health care provider is proven to be grossly negligent. Other caps or limitations may be applicable to a medical malpractice case as well.

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

The plaintiff’s attorney must timely bring a medical malpractice suit within the required timeframes. There are time limits on bringing a personal injury lawsuit in the state of South Carolina known as statutes of limitations. See S.C. Code 15-3-530(5); 15-3-535. While a medical malpractice personal injury suit is generally subject to a three year statute of limitations, there may be exceptions depending on the circumstances, such as a medical malpractice case where the negligent conduct may be covered by a concept known as the “discovery rule.” See S.C. Code 15-3-545; Wilson v. Shannon, 299 S.C. 512, 386 S.E.2d 257 (Ct. App. 1989).

The statutes of limitations are different for negligence suits against a South Carolina state government agency pursuant to the South Carolina Tort Claims Act (“TCA”) and the federal government pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”). Under the TCA, a suit must generally be filed within two years, unless a verified claim is filed within a year of the injury, then the statute of limitations is three years. S.C. Code § 15-78-110. Under the FTCA, an administrative tort claim must generally be presented to the subject federal agency within two years. Once a timely administrative tort claim has been filed, there is no statute of limitations on bringing a suit unless the federal agency denies the claim, in which case a suit must be brought in federal court within six months after the denial. 28 U.S.C. 1346(b), 1402, 2401, 2675.

NECESSITY OF AN EXPERT

South Carolina Code 15-79-125 requires, on medical malpractice cases arising on or after July 1, 2005, that before a medical malpractice suit can be filed, a plaintiff has to simultaneously file both a notice of intent to file suit and an affidavit of an expert witness subject to the affidavit requirements established in 15-36-100 in a county in which venue would be proper for filing or initiating the action. Statutory mediation of any such medical malpractice case is required as well, and, there are time limits for filing suit should the attempted mediation fail. As noted above, an expert’s testimony is necessary at trial to prove a breach of the standard of care and proximate cause of the injury, and the medical malpractice lawyer should retain a medical expert early on to assess the case and to be prepared to testify at trial.

Medical malpractice can occur whenever a patient is in the care of a healthcare professional. This can involve the failure or delay in properly diagnosing or treating an illness or injury so that it causes new or aggravated injuries.

Medical malpractice attorneys like Ken Lewis at Bush Lewis P.L.L.C. in Beaumont, Texas, help thousands of people every year who have been the victim of medical malpractice or medical negligence.

Many people don’t realize how frequently medical malpractice occurs. In fact, thousands of people every year are either injured from medical malpractice or medical negligence, or die from injuries or illnesses that could have been prevented or treated with proper medical care.

If you or a loved one has been injured or if a loved one has died as a result of medical malpractice, contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney. Medical malpractice claims can be difficult because health records must be researched and rules and regulations must be followed in order to prove that injuries were sustained or aggravated as a result of the medical malpractice or medical negligence.

“I investigate the victim’s medical history,” says, Ken Lewis in Beaumont, Texas, “this way, I can show that their injuries or illness is the result of the breach of standards from a healthcare professional, healthcare facility, or hospital.”

Since medical malpractice can occur in many different situations, medical malpractice claims can take many different forms, for many different reasons. Some of the common medical malpractice claims are:

· Birth Injury – when an infant is born, it is a very delicate situation, and medical malpractice can arise because of errors made in the delivery or care of the infant.

· Cerebral Palsy – is a medical condition that is caused by brain damage from a number of reasons. Many times, cerebral palsy is caused by medical malpractice or medical errors, such as birth injury.

· Failure to Diagnose – if your healthcare provider fails to diagnose you for an illness, they could be held liable for medical malpractice because they did not prescribe a treatment, and thus allowed the illness to progress.

· Medication Errors – if you are prescribed the wrong medication it is medical malpractice, and the results can be disastrous. If you are allergic to certain substances, the wrong medication can even cause death.

· Defective Medical Devices – if you are injured or suffer medical problems because you are prescribed or given a defective medical device, the healthcare provider can be held responsible for the resulting injury.

· Wrongful Death – Thousands of people die every year from medical malpractice. If you believe your loved one died due to medical malpractice, contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney.

Medical malpractice can cause serious health problems. If you have been the victim of medical malpractice, you are entitled to compensation for the resulting medical bills, lost wages, loss of enjoyment of life, and other damages.

Studies have found that many cases of medical malpractice go unreported. Of those that do get reported, the plaintiffs are left with a less than satisfactory result. The primary reason for both of these findings is that a plethora of medical malpractice misconceptions exist in the psyche of the common American. Many of these myths hold victims back from filing a lawsuit or from revealing all of the necessary facts for a healthy settlement or judgment. Following are some of the most common malpractice misconceptions:

Misconception 1 – It is only necessary to prove negligence.

This is the leading misconception in malpractice suits. While negligence is a large part of the lawsuit, it is really only one of the four elements that must be proven in the case. The first element that must be proven is that the medical professional had a duty to treat you in the first place. Doctors and other healthcare workers do not necessarily have a duty to perform medical procedures in every case. Negligence is the second element. The third element of the case is injury. The negligence must result in an injury. Finally, the injury must have caused some type of damages, which can be physical, emotional or financial.

Misconception 2 – Only doctors can commit malpractice.

Many people believe malpractice only pertains to physicians or surgeons. This is completely untrue. Any medical professional charged with treating or caring for you can commit malpractice. This includes nurses, medical assistants, anesthesiologists and radiologists, amongst others.

This is a misconception that is shared not only be patients, but by doctors and other healthcare practitioners alike. The truth of the matter is that studies have conclusively proven no link between higher rates of medical malpractice suits and higher medical costs. Victims of malpractice should never feel shamed or feel they are committing a sin against society for filing a malpractice suit.

Misconception 4 – Medical malpractice suits are frivolous.

Many people believe that malpractice suits are without merit. This is completely false. Because medical malpractice is much more difficult to prove than other types of personal injury cases, almost all cases that are accepted by an attorney are for legitimate damages that have been caused to a patient through negligence.

Misconception 5 – It is too expensive to sue for malpractice.

It is true that malpractice cases can be expensive. However, almost all medical malpractice attorneys work on a contingency basis. This means that the patient has absolutely zero upfront medical costs. All costs and attorneys’ fees are paid out of the final judgment or settlement. This fact also goes back to support the truth of Misconception 4. Because attorneys are working on expensive malpractice suits on a contingency basis they can’t afford to accept frivolous suits

Physicians who accept responsibility for treatment decisions are accountable for their medical practice errors.

The truth is this: Most of us inherently trust doctors and physicians to keep our best interest in mind and to have the ability to safely help us. This trust may not always be founded, but it’s a deeply rooted part of our culture, and even if we get butterflies before a major operation, our logic still tells us that we’re going to come out fine on the other side.

When that isn’t the case, medical malpractice can really damage our psyche and give us a deep fear of medical attention of any kind. In many cases, that is just the beginning of what happens to our psyche.

Every year medical malpractice cases in America’s most advanced cities like New York, Chicago and California, causing at least 27,000 injuries and 7,000 deaths. Eight times as many patients are injured as ever file a claim, and 16 times as many suffer injuries as ever receive any compensation. At the highest level, the estimated number of medical injuries nationally is more than one million per year; approximately 85,000 malpractice suits are filed annually.

To deter against the malpractice cases and these frightening facts and figures from the most developed country of the world, we need to know about what medical malpractice is all about.

What Is Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice cases occur when a healthcare provider fails to exercise that degree of care and skill required by a patient. If these standards are not followed, malpractice may have occurred. It can be generally defined as substandard treatment by a physician or other healthcare professional that directly results in physical or economic damages to the patient. “Substandard” care refers to care that violates normal medical practices.

Five Most Common and Most Frightening Effects of Medical Malpractice Cases

There are many different outcomes in medical malpractice cases, but here are some common after-effects of medical negligence.

1. Pain and Suffering

The foremost and obvious effect of having something go wrong in a simplest of medical treatment to the major operation is the pain and suffering of the injured.

2. Disability or Deformity

In many severe medical malpractice cases, a patient may end up disabled or deformed as a result of medical negligence, causing a disadvantage for the rest of their life, affecting their ability to work and do pretty much anything else.

3. Emotional Stress and Mental Fatigue

One of the deepest extents of any medical malpractice case brings to a person in a situation of emotional stress caused by the negligence of a doctor or a medical practitioner. Even a temporary situation can result in shock and complete re-evaluation of what we can expect from the society around us.

4. Financial Miseries

Medical malpractice negligence happening can become a very expensive issue for the patient. Because it might not only increase the time of recovery from the scratch but also skyrocket the cost of medical attention and most importantly the financial loss due to unemployment.

5. Death

Almost 98,000 people die in hospitals annually each year due to medical malpractice cases. Whether from the wrong medication or something more sinister, these things do happen.

Two Basic Reasons of Increasing Medical Malpractice Cases.

Medical inflation is the most important reason that has triggered the medical malpractice cases all around the world from the most developed countries to the countries of the third world. The first reason which halts me up is that the expenses are the biggest and the most predictable part of damages in the high severity cases that drive malpractice payments in individual cases to increase at a rate that is closer to the rate of medical inflation than to rate of inflation in the other areas.

Second reason which daunts out expressively is that the health-care sector economy is growing more rapidly than the economy as a whole. Malpractice payments can be expected to grow at about the same rate as the size of health-care sector of the economy and as fast as medical prices. This is in-fact what the research has proved in recent years.

Concluding Comments

• In principle, a negligence rule of liability against medical malpractice cases can correct these distortions and create incentives for efficient care and risk-taking, under certain conditions. These conditions include that courts set the standard of due care at the efficient level, that damages be optimally set, that providers be liable for failure to obtain informed consent, and that suits be brought and compensation awarded if and only if negligence occurs.

• Efficient deterrence incentives can, in theory, also be achieved by a rule of strict liability, whereby providers are liable for all injuries caused by medical care, regardless of negligence.

• Adjusting for medical inflation helps prevent us from mistaking in medical procedures and also a major decrease in medical negligence cases can be expected.

• The second thing which can be done to cut the maximizing rate of medical malpractice cases is that to increase the liability, like if a doctor or medical practitioner malpractices, he or she should be arrested and punished to the maximum prison sentence. And if the felony has reached up to death of a patient then the medical practitioner must be treated as the criminal murderer’s are treated in the judgment court because the human life is more precious than anything.

• Committing to implement these standards we can deter those medical practitioner or doctors who are ever been involved in such activities but can also retaliate aggressively against the increasing amount of medical negligence and medical malpractice cases.

Medication errors are one of the most serious and easily preventable errors committed in hospitals around the country. According to the Institute of Medicine, medication errors result in 7,000 deaths, injure 1.5 million people and cost hospitals, insurance companies and providers over $3.5 billion annually.

From accidental overdoses to allergic reactions, errors in the transcription and distribution of medication can have serious and, in some cases, lethal consequences for patients. As a result, providers have long sought ways to improve patient safety. Reducing medication errors helps reduce costs and, ultimately, improves the level of care patients receive.

As questions about how to improve patient safety continue, a new study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) suggests that bar codes may be part of the answer. For the study, researchers at BWH compared patients who received medication through a bar code and electronic medication administration system and those who did not. By using the new system, transcription errors were eliminated and potential adverse events fell by 51 percent. Timing errors, which include getting the wrong dose at the wrong time, were reduced by 27 percent.

Nearly 6 million doses are issued at BWH annually and the researchers concluded that the new bar code system will prevent 90,000 serious medication errors every year.

Medication errors come in different forms, though transcription and dosage related errors are common. Poor handwriting by doctors has often been cited as the root cause for transcription errors. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, poor penmanship is responsible for 6 percent of all hospital medication errors. A study conducted in the 1970s found that nearly one-third of all physicians’ handwriting was illegible. More recent studies have cited an improvement, but still find a significant number of doctors have handwriting that is only marginally legible.